Years of consumer purchases, including all manner of firearms and accessories have left me often feeling a product only adequately met its mark. When the XDs .45 ACP was announced and demonstrated at the 2012 SHOT show, it had all the makings of a well marketed firearm but the bar was a set pretty high, with a lot of promise. To be fair, I have an XDm .45 ACP, and a SOCOM 16 M1A. So called ‘pocket’ guns are getting a lot of attention from numerous manufacturers, and the recent offerings by S&W, Ruger, Kahr, Beretta & now Springfield Armory are definitely driving a competitive market place. The XDs .45 ACP is going to fill a definite consumer demand.

Good luck finding one.

The XDS is in high demand. Whether that is deliberate on S/A’s part, or they’re just being snapped up by people eager to add a .45 backup gun to their rotation is not clear. What is clear is gun shops are lucky to get what they get and they are selling very fast. I called several local shops, then went to a large gun show, stopping at 20 different FFLs. Thinking I’d gone to them all, at least twice I was going to pick up a red dot for a rifle when I decided to give a very lonely looking XDs a forever home from an unknown to me FFL from North Carolina. I could tell the gun wanted to come home with me, sitting there all alone amidst the 1911’s. 20 minutes later I was on the way to the range. A brief inspection later, we had the first rounds downrange and it was good.

Despite Congress and overwhelming public comments to the contrary, the BATFE have pressed forward with revised “sporting purposes” criteria to restrict the import of shotguns (that BATFE does not want you to have access to). The terminology and its abuse over the years has been well documented. The effect of this abuse is what we need to consider. Looking at recent history, in 1989, BATFE was compelled to halt importation of numerous semi automatic rifles on this determination:

The “study” conducted was by a “working group” - basically ATF set up a ‘Star Chamber’ like death panel for your 2nd Amendment rights. These rifles became unavailable literally overnight. Some of our community have undersold the current shotgun study because Congress placed restrictions on ATF denying import applications. This is temporary at best.

You can see from the pdf reports that BATFE loves to play numbers games. They like to compare “practical shooting” and specifically USPSA to hunting. But hunting isn’t a sport, is it? A recreational activity? Yes, a tradition that built this country? Absolutely. ATF studies however refuse to recognize plinking as a sport so what validity is there to compare hunting to USPSA? Instead, USPSA should be compared to Curling. An Olympic sport with defined rules for competition, membership and competitive events.

Many of you may not have heard of curling. If you haven’t, it’s not an exercise in lifting 12 ounces or a pint at a time. The relevant point here is that it’s an Olympic sport, along with some shooting competitions, and the USA Curling association reports 16,000 members. ATF attributes 19,000 to USPSA. Take a few moments to read the ATF reports and awe at the staggering amount of time it must have taken to fabricate these justifications, achieve a consensus among their ‘Second Amendment Start Chamber’ and produce those voluminous reports. This is just a sampling of the lengths BATFE will go to in order to suppress your rights. It’s not going to be easy to stop this kind of BATFE abuse, but failing to act will lead to more restrictions. Make no mistake that these actions affect ALL gun owners. Even if you only own certain kinds of firearms, is the last gun you bought exactly like the first gun you bought? We will need to be unified in our efforts to end this kind of BATFE abuse.

Beretta USA replaced my Nano 9mm after a couple weeks. I've never had a gun 'replaced' although I confess that I have wished for a firearm to be replaced ... Not a Beretta if that matters. At first I thought 'great, a fresh start' but I admit I had a bit of a sentimental attachment to the gun I bought. Oh well. So I have taken the new Nano to the range twice now.

By now, many people know that a fringe element of the firearm prohibitionist movement called for a boycott of Starbucks beginning 02/14/2012. That didn’t pan out too well for them as within hours of releasing their PR Newswire release, gun bloggers across the United States and many grassroots RKBA groups called for their membership to help out a business being targeted solely for respecting the right of their patrons to lawfully protect themselves and their families.

Valentine’s Day came and went. Nobody was hurt, maimed or killed despite the shrill protestations of the gun prohibitionists. Now however there seems to be a bit of “gun blogger remorse” floating around.

The thing is, when you organize a family reunion the event includes the whole family including ‘crazy’ Uncle Jed, goofy Aunt Jen, and everyone in between. Yes, the annoying spawn of distant cousins from backwater NYC who married will be running around, screaming, misbehaving while the adults try to talk, “Big” Al will probably burn the burgers & dogs on the grill and it’s certain that cross words will be spoken between at least 2 men & 2 women, but no harm usually comes from it. Surely there will be whisper & gossip about someone wearing something just a little too tight.

Recently Beretta USA introduced a new pocket pistol, the “Nano”, chambered in 9mm. The dimensions are quite favorable to pocket, glovebox and ‘backup gun’ carry methods. Scored at a local gun show for under $400 The gun has some good potential in a crowded field. How the gun compares and shoots along side some of the existing competition will prove interesting and perhaps entertaining.

First off, this gun is small. “J-frame” small. Not quite pocket .380 small, but for a 9mm chambered gun it definitely is well placed in the market. Smith & Wesson’s J-Frame revolver is considered by many as the “Gold Standard” for pocket carry and the J-Frame is certainly carried by many very often. It’s also true that they’re shot very seldom by many. Take a look at a side by side size comparison: